THE INCOMPARABLE ARCHER

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God.... Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.... Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”—Ephesians vi. 13, 14, 16.

When traps, tricks, seductions, and quackery, temptations, etc., fail, Satan adds victims to his long list by destroying them at long range. While in a mountain peak vision of inspiration Paul sees the enemy as a wrestler, a trickster, a schemer, and even a more dangerous rÔle than either: a skilled marksman. By keeping close to God, and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, we may stay his blighting touch from personal contact; but there seems to be no absolute safety until we are shielded by the “whole armour of God.”

There are “evil days,” days of visitation and distress, over which no one has control; at such times we may not be conscious of any satanic presence; yet confusion, doubt, fear and anxiety have complete control over mind and heart. These days, and their depressing effect, can only be warded off by the protection of the “whole armour”; for emphasis, Paul mentions it twice in the same paragraph. An armour is a coat of mail covering the body, made so as to be impenetrable to the missile of death. The Apostle does not stop with a partial equipment; the head and feet also must be properly covered. Especially does he emphasize the shield—that great polished, concave steel disk, strapped to the left arm, so that a thrust from sword, arrow, or spear can be easily deflected. As it is carried on the arm it can be raised or lowered so as to protect the whole body.

This arrow-protecting shield must be wrought in faith, that mysterious relation which unites the soul with God. The antithesis of Paul’s language implies that when Satan makes certain efforts to wound the soul, the shield of faith alone can save. The fight is not ended when we come out victor in a hand to hand conflict, but must next prepare to meet a shower of “fiery darts.” A dart is an arrow shot from a bow; a fiery dart is a flaming torch attached to the arrow.

In all ages, until the days of powder and firearms, soldiers were equipped with bow and arrows. Arrowheads were made of steel, and as keen as needles. The battle-axe and broadsword were used when the lines met, but showers of arrows would fall upon the enemy with as much fatality as a round of grape and canister. Often the arrows would be freshly dipped in a deadly poison, and in that case the slightest wound would result in certain death. When a fort or city was being besieged, the arrows would carry a ball of tow, having been saturated in oil; hundreds of these flaming darts would fall on the inside of the fortification and start a general conflagration.

This method was practiced by the American Indians when they could not reach a fort, blockhouse, or stockade because of the white man’s gun; these flaming torches, falling in great number, were more to be dreaded than the tomahawk and scalping knife of the savages.

Satan shoots “fiery darts”—arrows—at us; he may come, as he did to the Master, and find nothing in us; our hearts may be clean. But from a source entirely unexpected—here comes a flaming arrow—burning its way into the heart, igniting with hatred and misunderstanding friends and enemies in a manner never dreamed of before. How often the blow comes from the one place least expected, and for that reason all the more deadly. We are guarded in some directions, but over the walls of our stockade the Devil sends his fiery darts, and we are swept away in a satanic conflagration. It requires the “whole armour”—and the shield of faith to quench the flaming arrows from his quiver. He is the world’s incomparable archer; when all other methods fail, he shoots us with poisoned, fiery darts.

The mother of Achilles baptized him in the river Styx, making him invulnerable to the weapons of the enemy; she held him by the heel during the baptismal ceremony; the heel only remained untouched by the protecting waters of the fabulous Styx. One of the gods became acquainted with this fact, and shot him to death in the heel, the one vulnerable spot. Again, we repeat, we are not safe without the “whole armour of God,” and the “shield of faith.” Bear in mind, also, the Incomparable Archer takes a more deliberate aim if it is a shining mark, and exults most when he can lay low in the dust, wounded and disabled, one dowered with unusual capacity for noble service.